St Lucia
Originally uploaded by maskingtape

Lovely sketchbook, love the stark black line

Today is my day of chores. Saturdays are often that day for me. I sleep in then start to tackle the list. Today’s list included taking the dogs for a much needed grooming. Witht hat out of the way I’m in line for some household chores before I’m fully awake to tackle the various to do lists for Art Journaling ning, the Zine and the new projects I’ve lined up for myself.

I became distracted by the mail when the rest of my now week old Amazon order arrived. I received my Noodler’s Firefly yellow highlighter ink and the waterproof grease. I call this the rest of my “works.” In that these 2 items go hand-in-hand with the syringe I ordered from a Veterinary supply company so that I could easily measure precisely the amount of ink I’m placing into the barrel of my pens. This will allow me to mix perfect blue blacks and other colors. As of right now it’s letting me fill my Platinum Preppy highlighter with firefly yellow fountain pen ink so that I can keep all my to do lists accurate and highlighted. The preppy hold 3ml of ink. A regular cartridge holds 1ml. My 3oz of firefly ink is equal to 89 cartridges. That many cartridges would cost $67. One bottle of firefly yellow ran me $12.50. So you might balk at paying $13 for a bottle of fine ink, but then you look at the cost against the cartridges it’s a real value.*

Not to mention that filling the preppy with 3 ml is equal to 3 cartridges of ink, meaning I’ll have to fill it less often. My fountain pen looks like it’ll hold about the same in ink but I wanted to test it out so I only filled it halfway.

So I can’t wait to get sketching with my fountain pen and tackling that to do list with my highlighter filled with Noodler’s ink!

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Art Journal
Originally uploaded by bad bad magpie

I love this page bright color, image xfer and awesomeness.

collage; All the right tools
Originally uploaded by Jay Carrier

creepy but great

I am not the most patient person in the world. I am patient with some things; painting, drawing and friends. When it comes down to my long daily commute I am not anywhere near patient. In fact today after sitting in 10mph traffic for over an hour before getting roughly 10 miles from my home I was envisioning ways to cause accidents that would give the idiots ahead of me a real reason to drive like a moron.

I hit the exit for Wakefield and turned around and came home. I texted my boss and let her know. I have 2 choices now: fuck around all day or work from home. I’m not sure which choice I’m taking. Right now a 2^nd cup of coffee and a nap with the dog seems likely.

 The traffic is the worst part of living where I do, other than that the NOrth Shore is a nice place.

Here's a great art journal page by mycreativebliss on youtube.

I have a love of expensive writing instruments. I have since I purchases my fist 0.01 rapidograph my first year of high school. It cost me $30 and my parents were horrified that I’d purchased such an expensive drawing tool. I loved it until I destroyed it in college. Let’s not discuss that I’m still upset.

I know that my love of expensive writing instruments is trite and that EVERY artist under the sun loves a good drawing tool the way I do, it’s a universal love.

I also love good ink. I have jars of Higgins, various sumi inks, colored inks and I lust after the DR PH Martin’s set of color inks and liquid watercolors. Yet, I’m nearly ashamed to admit I have just added to my ink stable my first bottle of Noodler’s Ink, bulletproof Black. Seriously where have I been? I have known about Noodler’s for years. It’s made here in the US, one of the few inks that is permanent on cellulose and writes so smooth it’s not funny.

I have sitting on my desk a 3oz bottle of jet black permanent fade proof ink. I can’t wait to ink up my entire set of Rapidographs*, my 2 Rotring 700’s, my Vintage Pelikan GO pen and many others will get inked up with my new bottle of noodler’s.  I’m excited about the possibilities of the rotrings being inked up with the platinum preppy pen hack mentioned here. I’ve go the waterproof grease and a needle on order…

I wonder if ordering a syringe (with needle) online got me put on any government watch lists or if the Beverly Police will be knocking on my door looking for my stash… I’ll gladly show them to my new bottle of Noodler’s. They can look but if they confiscate it I’ll raise hell.

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I’m about to head to bed but I need to tell you about my art field trip to the deCordova museum in Lincoln, MA. My friend Jane and I have been scheduling art field trips here and there throughout the area. I’m advertising the days on ArtJournaling Ning, so if you want an excuse to go out and sketch and experience art, feel free to join us or schedule an art field trip in your area! Tell me about it so we can schedule an event on AJ Ning.

This week we decided to go to the deCordova. 2 weeks previous we’d gone to Salem Common. The deCordova is a sculpture park and museum. They offer classes, which I find a little on the pricey side but I’ve heard they are very good.

Cost for adults is $12, there are various discounts if you’re a card holder of various and assorted things, like AAA. If you are a college student admission is only $8. A year membership is $60 and if you plan on going more than 5 times, obviously is a good deal. Admission on Mondays is free.

There’s a lot to see and many of the sculptures are on loan to the museum for extended periods of time. There is a lot to see. There are around 60 sculptures within the grounds and around the building.  Some are mind boggling and ridiculously cool. One that I always like to see is Jim Dine “Two Big Black Hearts.” These 2 giant bronze hearts stand 12 feet high. Monstrously large and intensely cool.  You can call a number to listen to Dine talk about the piece.

There’s a lot to see and do. The store also houses a small 2d art gallery. They also on select dates have artists come in and give talks. The artist talks are included with the cost of admission and they fill fast.

A side note, it’s good to bring a picnic lunch with you as the food sells out of the café quickly. Don’t expect to get a sandwich or a soda after 1pm.

I’ve been to the deCordova in the past, when it was free to wander the park. You now get charged for both the park and the museum. This is good because I actually went into the museum this time and it was amazing. They have some extraordinary exhibits going on and were well worth the $10 I spent on admission. (AAA member.)

In short I can’t recommend the place enough. It’s full of visually interesting things, would be a great place to take a date and is a great place to vegitate.

Spread 003 Paperbear
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

Look at all those earthy browns

The recent suicide of gay teens has been getting some national press attention. This is sad but also good. It’s about damn time that influence of bullying is discussed, blogged about and gets national press attention.

Part of me wants to scream out what about all of the kids who came before who committed suicide? What about my generation? This kids who quietly passed away with no attention? The kids who suffered with no one speaking out?

Part of me knows it’s time that my generation of GLBTA folk speak out and talk about the crap that happened to us as kids, about the presence of bullies in our school. Speaking out is the only way I know to let today’s youth know they aren’t alone, that yeah it sucks but it gets better.

So here is my story:

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